Bomb Forces Evacuation Of 200 Teen Built Device As Experiment

October 21, 1986|By Kirsten Gallagher of The Sentinel Staff

LONGWOOD — A pipe bomb built by a Casselberry teen-ager as an experiment led to the evacuation Monday of more than 200 people, including 30 children, after it was seen in a car outside a day-care center.

The 17-year-old youth, who said he inadvertently left the explosive in his car while grabbing a bite to eat with his girlfriend, was charged with manufacturing or possession of an explosive device, a second-degree felony.

''There was no threat to do any property damage or bodily harm,'' Longwood police Lt. Frank Taylor said.

Police withheld the names of the youth and his 17-year-old girlfriend because they are juveniles.

The bomb, which the youth said he made in July as an experiment, would have exploded only if it had been ignited with fire, said Altamonte Springs police Sgt. Jack Martin, a bomb specialist who removed the device. Had it exploded, the bomb would have killed front-seat passengers and injured anyone sitting in the back seat, he said.

A parent dropping off his child at the Kids' World day-care center shortly before 10 a.m. noticed the bomb on the console between the front seats of the locked Mercedes Benz and contacted police, Taylor said.

Police immediately evacuated the center and two adjacent office buildings on State Road 434 across the street from South Seminole Community Hospital. Within an hour Martin had removed the bomb and detonated it at a firing range. A Longwood police dog checked the car and building for other bombs, and by 11:30 a.m. evacuees were allowed to return to their buildings.

Taylor said the teen-ager returned in the afternoon to get his car and discovered it had been impounded.

When day-care workers saw the youth they called police, who arrested him and booked him into the Seminole Juvenile Detention Center.

At first police thought the Mercedes belonged to the arrested youth's girlfriend, who had dropped off her brother at the center at 7:30 a.m.

Loretta Ryan, director of the center, said the evacuation caused no panic among the children.

Ryan and six other instructors moved the children into the center's back yard and played games until they were allowed to return.

''I just told them, 'Boys and girls, we need to go outside for a while,' '' Ryan said. ''I knew I had to maintain control of myself and protect the school.''